I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.
Tammy Faye Bakker

That’s right, Tammy Faye. But this weekend, shopping can also be a way of supporting women in improving their lives. The NEW THE LIMITED store in the Crestview Hills Town Center (in KY, Greater Cincinnati) is celebrating their grand opening with 40% off everything this weekend and supporting a wonderful women’s organization. (& $50 Gift Card Giveaway below!)

The Limited believes in supporting women’s organizations and this weekend a portion of all sales at the new THE LIMITED Crestview location will benefit one of our favorite local organizations – The WOMEN’S FUND. (See this … Read More

We have amazing powers, Girlfriends. We can change a person’s day or attitude. We can share information that helps make their life easier. We can offer encouragement when someone needs it and be there as a friend when being a good listener is the only requirement. We can offer a smile on a day when they only have tears, and be that hope for a better day.

I was reminded a lot of the power of a smile recently when I went through training to volunteer for the WORLD CHOIR GAMES – an AMAZING event that started last night in Cincinnati. (It runs through July 14th. If you can, COME TO CINCINNATI for them! It’s a wonderful event (see below) that brings together people from six continents to share music and cultures – and it’s in Cincinnati OH – the first U.S. home for it!

The World Choir Games is the Olympics of choral music. For more than a decade, the Games have united people from around the world through the power of song and in the spirit of friendly competition. Throughout the event’s history, more than 2,000 choirs have participated in competitions across Europe and Asia. In 2012, the World Choir Games is taking place in the United States for the first time ever. Hundreds of choirs and thousands of visitors have come to Cincinnati to share their cultural heritage and to celebrate our global community with music, the common language of the world.

So back to my training to be a volunteer. Yes, we were told what to wear, where to go/park, on through how to do our specific volunteer tasks. We were prepared for how to assist choirs and visitors who don’t speak English, what to do in the case of an accident or emergency, how to navigate crowds between the various venues and lots more. But, the #1 instruction repeated over and over and over again in our training was simple: Just SMILE.

Don’t know what they’re asking you? SMILE. People sitting where they’re not supposed to? SMILE. Managing tired, hot, hungry visitors? SMILE. The power of a smile. The power of a smile to cross cultures and languages. The main way we can represent our city in this amazing event – be the city that SMILES.

It’s the same with our friends. Sometimes they need a smile, or a laugh, or a hug. Those can be delivered in person, through a sweet tweet or DM (for our Twitter girlfriends), by a LIKE or comment on Facebook, in a phone call or email. Just the effort of sharing a smile, connecting with someone, letting them know that you care – that’s dang powerful.

So today your challenge, my Girlfriends, is to SMILE. Find ways to show your friends how much they mean to you. Share a smile with a stranger, give grace to those around you, smile and wave in a driver who wants in your lane, smile at your kids, your neighbors, visitors to your city.

By the way, we LOVE guest blogs here at Girlfriendology. Have a great girlfriend story to tell? Want to celebrate your fabulous female friends? SHARE! (And, we also have Girlfriend Gurus – check that out to be featured on Girlfriendology!)

What’s our prediction for 2012? How do we KNOW it’s gonna be a GREAT year?

Because … WE ARE AMAZING WOMEN! We have the fantastic opportunity – right now – to make it a wonderful 2012.

We have the power to go after our dreams, to encourage our friends and to be the better friend who just may make another woman’s life better too. We can show others what it means to be supportive, inspiring and thoughtful. We can model to our children and all the ‘grown children’ in our world what it looks like to share the spotlight, to recognize the people who bless our lives and to practice ‘girlfriend gratitude’ and appreciate the wonderful women in our life.

That’s what we have the opportunity to do. That’s how powerful we are. That’s why 2012 is going to be great!

A little girlfriend inspiration for making 2012 your best year to date …

Really, we admit. It’s just a great excuse to get some girlfriends together to catch up on our lives, share a few laughs and drinks, and meet some new girlfriends. That’s our idea of the PERFECT Girlfriend Meet-up!

If you’re in/near Cincinnati, we hope you can join us:

Wednesday, September 28th, 5:30pm – ????

Chi-natti’s Restaurant (Kenwood on other side of 71 from Kenwood Mall) – 7980 Hosbrook Road

Bring your girlfriends and let’s just spend some time meeting new friends and catching up with… Read More

Friends take time to be friends … to be young … and to be together.

Meet my friend Joanne. Joanne is passion about living a positive life and contributing to the positivity and passion of those around her. Recently she was involved in an event that she, of course, passionately shared with me. I asked her to share with all of us to inspire us to be the kind of friend we’d like to have and to be the woman who lives her life passionately and with a positive spirit. Meet Joanne. Here’s her guest blog on women taking time to be friends, and to support their friends …… Read More

Cleopatra: She ruled the men who ruled the world.

Pretty powerful tagline for the new amazing exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center*. It’s Women’s History Month and so we took a road-trip to view this impressive collection of 150 artifacts including two colossal granite statues from the 4th – 3rd centuries B.C. that weigh almost 10 tons. All from the lost cities that Cleopatra walked. “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt” was organized by National Geographic and Arts and Exhibitions International, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), the exhibition will take visitors inside the present-day search for Cleopatra. (It runs through September 5th, 2011.)

My overwhelming take-away from this exhibit (aside from the amazing things that were done to acquire these artifacts from the ocean and digs) was centered back on Women’s History Month. It made me proud to learn of this woman who used her brain and bravery in leading her country. She spoke at least seven languages, wrote books and boldly stood up to rulers and armies. She boldly approached (and partnered with) Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. She embraced her power, followed her passions and … Read More

Girlfriendology focuses on the “social” in social media – hits five-year mark

Online community for women grows through social media connections

Cincinnati, OH, January 10, 2011 – In January 2006, Facebook had 5.5 million active users, YouTube had just officially launched and Twitter was months from its first tweet.

At the same time, Debba Haupert had a dream of inspiring women to be better, more supportive friends and started a blog called Girlfriendology. The idea came from the nature of women to need female friendship and be ‘social.’

Since January, 2006, social media sites have exploded in popularity. Facebook now has over 500 million active users, YouTube serves more than two billion … Read More

Cincinnati Girlfriends – do you love girlfriend time and saving money? We’ve got the event for you!

Join the Cincinnati Enquirer Locals on Living bloggers on May 15th

for a fun, free, frugal event with some of your favorite bloggers.

Cincinnati.Com partnered with 12 local bloggers, who are each experts in their areas of coverage, to form an online site called LOL: Locals on Living.

The Cincinnati.Com Network is the #1 local Web site in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Delivering nearly 40 million page views each month, Cincinnati.Com is the region’s most-viewed and most-visited local Web site. The Cincinnati.Com Network represents more than 50 local and national print and online brands, including the online editions of The Enquirer, the Community Press and` Community Recorder.

It’s Saturday and time for a Cincinnati girlfriend introduction blog.

Why? Well, it’s just something girlfriends like to do, right? We love to brag on our friends and let them know how special they are to us. And, even if you’re not in Cincinnati, these women just may inspire you!

First, I’m fortunate to be part of LOL – ‘Locals on Living.’ This group of local bloggers was brought together by Cincinnati Enquirer and has a special event coming. (That’s all the teaser you get, but I’d save the date of May 15th if I were you!) But we’ll have some great frugal info there!

So, here are some local girlfriends and bloggers who you need to know, read, follow and fan:… Read More

Kroger has a new Fuel Savings program – did you know?

Last week Kroger invited me and a few of my fella girlfriend bloggers to the Hyde Park Kroger to find out more about their new fuel savings program. It was great to hear about it but also really great to see/meet some women bloggers (several local frugal bloggers) in the Cincinnati area, like:… Read More

One thing you’ll notice at women’s blogger conferences, is the impressive decibel level.

This isn’t a statement on women’s behavior, our verbal proficiency or the often hard, reverberating surfaces found in conference settings. It’s because you have a gathering of women with voices and the blogs to prove it. Voices that share our daily lives with each other. Voices that years ago had no depository for expression. Voices that decades ago were silenced and unwelcomed. Now, dang it!, we’ve got voices and we’re using them!… Read More

One of the great gifts of the holidays is the opportunity to see and share with friends.

I love how the weeks, months or years of not spending time together just melt away as we share life and time together with friends. It’s a wonderful time of year to reconnect and celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza or just the true blessing of friends.

There are a few events upcoming in Cincinnati for girl and guy friends that offer fun opportunities to meet new and old friends and maybe even get some ‘stuff!':… Read More

My very good friend Judi (on the left in this photo) asked me to put a meeting on my calendar. Always one to forego meetings if not completely necessary and if at all possible, I hesitated – and she knew it. She wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer, so, trusting my girlfriend, I went.

She had assembled a group of six or eight women to just meet each other. Women she respects, enjoys and thought would enjoy meeting each other. … Read More